A: Hey juanporfavor!

Great question – let's clear that up right away.

No, a third-party API key (like from OpenAI or Anthropic) is not absolutely necessary to start using AgenticFlow effectively!

Here's the breakdown:

Included AgenticFlow Credits & Built-in Models:
- Your AppSumo plan comes with a generous pool of monthly AgenticFlow credits.
- These credits cover the cost of running workflow steps on our platform AND the cost of using our built-in, economical LLM models (like Gemini Flash 2.0, GPT-4o-mini, DeepSeek V3).
- So, you can build many powerful workflows and agents using only the included credits and these built-in models without needing any external API keys.

When Third-Party APIs (BYOK) Come In:
- You only need to bring your own API key (BYOK) if you specifically want to use other premium or different LLMs that aren't included in our built-in options (e.g., the full GPT-4, Claude 3 Opus, Perplexity models).
- Using BYOK for these external models means you pay that provider directly for the AI usage, and it doesn't use the variable part of your AgenticFlow credits (though the step itself still uses the small fixed credit cost).

Connecting Other Tools (MCPs):
- For connecting non-AI tools like Google Sheets, Slack, WordPress, etc., via our MCP integrations, you'll need to authenticate with your credentials for those specific services (usually via OAuth login or providing an API key from that service), but this is separate from needing a paid LLM API key. The AgenticFlow credits cover the execution of these steps.

In short: You can absolutely get started and build useful automations using only the AgenticFlow platform and the credits/built-in models provided with your tier. Bringing your own external LLM API keys is an option for accessing more/different AI models, not a requirement to use the platform itself.

Hope this helps!
— Sean